The Question
Amidst the myriad of discussions and spiritual exercises, can you practice spirituality as a Christian? Read on to see research, perspectives, and some helpful suggestions.
Answer
Can you practice spirituality as a Christian? While the question requires a simple yes or no, the answer is complex. Put simply, it depends on the spiritual practice in question and the conscience of the individual. A Christian can practice spirituality with a good conscience by following 4 essential steps.
Read On
Keep reading for survey responses from 44 people on this question. I’ll offer 4 steps to help you figure out if a given spiritual practice is Christian or not.
Research from Polls
Core question: Can you practice spirituality as a Christian?
Answers with 44 Responses (see references 1-6, below)
| Yes | No | Maybe | Other |
| 24 | 11 | 5 | 4 |
Total: 44
Interpretation of the research
Like any good researcher, it’s vital to remember, that numbers require interpretation.
As Mark Twain once said, “Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.”
From this small research group, you can see that the majority of participants agreed that a person can be both spiritual and Christian. When others said “no”, they were clearly referring to a particular definition of spirituality, and these differed to some degree.
Finally, with the “maybe” category, you can see that respondents understood this question is best answered when you take into consideration the definitions of “Christian,” “spirituality,” and “practice” and one cannot definitely answer the question without further dialogue.
Expanding the “Other” Category
| Doesn’t Matter | Do this Instead | N/A or Off-Topic |
| 1 | 2 | 1 |
Others didn’t either answer the question (off-topic), suggested the question doesn’t really matter (“Christianity isn’t true and spirituality is just a word for posers”), or offered two alternatives (e.g. “Take LSD” and “Read the book ‘Jesus >Religion’ by Jefferson Bethke”).
As you can tell, defining terms and offering perspectives for further dialogue is what the respondents alluded to.
So let’s do that. I’ll define some terms and offer 4 Key perspectives on your journey to a Spiritually Healthy You.
You can be the judge if it works for you or not.
Step#1: Spiritual Practice Audit
A common myth of moderns in the 21st century (myself included) is that all practices whether religious or secular are actually neutral. What is meant by “neutral?” We’re talking about the assumption that all actions are essentially meaningless and carry no intrinsic worldview, beliefs, or values except the ones that we ascribe to them. Along with this myth is another untruth: actions with our bodies do not shape our character or personality. “I can do what I want and it has no effect on my soul.”
Since the respondents wanted a conversation, a conversation they’ll get! To help us further I’m going to bring associate professor of philosophy and theology James K. A. Smith and his work titled, “Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation”.
To understand how to answer our question “can you practice spirituality as a Christian” we need to first ask what type of thing is a human? More particularly are they thinking things, believing things, or lovers?
After reading a lot of theology books, I think Smith does an excellent job here of illuminating the nature of our essential personhood.
If we were to look at our major cultural influences in the Western world, we might say (and some oversimplifications are useful), there’s a consistent story of how we identified what being human is.
Humans as thinkers
For the 17th century, a dominant thought about what makes us human could be expressed in the statement, “I think, therefore I am”. No this is not a reference to Billie Elish and no she didn’t get Descartes right, although I do have a hankering for it once in a while.
For Renee Descartes (and he had good reasons for doing so), his basic project outlined in Discourse on Method and Meditations assumed the person can simply think their way through a problem. What am I? Smith comments “Descartes concludes that “I” am “a thinking thing”. In other words, what I am is an essentially immaterial mind or consciousness – occasionally and temporarily embodied, but not essential.” (see reference 7, bottom).
Christian Spirituality, therefore, is merely rationalistic in this view. The trouble with rationalism is that one can use reason to justify a myriad of spiritual practices. This also negates embodied practices too. You could avoid practicing spirituality altogether and just opt out by thinking through spiritual things.
If you are essentially what you think, what do we make of those who don’t think as well or even can’t think at all due to disability? Are we prepared to say they can’t practice spirituality as a Christian?
Humans as Believers
Another common mistake is a shoot-off from the first one. This one says, “I Believe in order to understand.” This notion came out of the Reformation and Protestant tradition – something that continues today in many conservative Christian churches.
Before we examine our thoughts through reason, we are first believers – that is to say, we commit to assumptions about the way the world is before we are fully conscious of it.
The expression of spiritual practice here ends in having “correct doctrine”.
One is truly a Christian by what they believe not by what they love or do. This tends to make the person still a disembodied, individualistic thing. If I just believe in thinking the right things then I’m practicing spirituality as a Christian.
Besides the fact that these two notions (Humans are Thinkers and/or Believers) are dehumanizing, there’s also the simple fact that spiritual practices are by nature…well…about doing stuff with your body like
- Breathing
- Bowing
- Speaking (as in prayer)
- Abstaining from food (fasting)
- Holding (whether that’s a cross or a sacred text)
This leads us to the third type of vision for human spirituality, namely Humans as Lovers.
Humans as Lovers
Thankfully there are other ways to see ourselves. In an Augustinian view, Human beings are ultimately lovers. How do we know what we love? We know what we love most by what we do. And it works in opposite direction. We can shape what we love by what we do repeatedly. See this image (from Smith, 48).
If what we do shapes what we love, then it follows the actions or spiritual practices that can be indicators of what our hearts long for. Our heart points forward to a destination (i.e. “2. Targe/Object”). In this way, we can see that our actions whether consciously or unconsciously demonstrate what world we really love or what we see the world really as.
By seeing that all spiritual practices are not neutral we can assess now by looking at bodily action first, what we really believe and love about the world.
Rather than a top-down process (I think God is real therefore this is who I am) we look at what our body does during the day, our habits included determining what we really believe (my theology says God exists but I never speak to him or do anything else to suggest so).
An Example of Spiritual Practice in Daily Consumerism
For instance, I can say I “stand against all forms of consumerism, colonialism, and child labor exploitation” and ….yet….using my iPhone frequently check amazon for the next thing I can buy. After examining this action we can see a number of beliefs are in operation. While my head says one thing, my hands are the actual test of my true theology.
First, I’m using an iPhone which some organizations are raising awareness of how child labor is exploited so we can have the next gadget (children in cobalt mining for cell phone batteries – see “Is my cell phone powered by child labor?”)
Secondly, my repeated actions to click on my amazon app reveal another theology happening that “I’m a lover of consumerism and materialism” and vis versa the more that I engage in this behavior while getting a reward, the more our brains want it.
This leads us to the next idea: Complicity and Step #2! Read on.
Step #2: Assess for Complicity
In other words, “rule out the wrong.” A whole series can be written on this topic, but I’ll do my best to lay out some basic ideas here.
First, is the idea of complicity. To be complicit in something is to “be involved in an activity of wrongdoing.” There are degrees that all of our actions participate in some wrongdoing. There are far levels and near levels of complicity.
Taking our earlier example of iPhone usage, if it’s true that Apple uses child labor to mine for cobalt and pays them little to nothing so we can drink our latte and check our Instagram at the same time, but we didn’t know it, we are complicit in the wrongdoing of the children of Congo….but how complicit or to what degree?
With less knowledge of the wrongdoing equals less complicity (far) and with more knowledge of the wrongdoing equals more complicity (near).
Sometimes individual actions can be more complicit than others regardless of your degree of knowledge of the wrongdoing.
Secondly, the concept of moral dilemma and moral distress is important here. Moral dilemmas are when we have an ethical problem concerning what we “should or shouldn’t do.” We experience moral distress when we “know what’s right but are constrained by some other factors outside our control to do it anyway.” Put differently, we experience moral distress when we know what’s wrong and we are forced by circumstances to do it anyway.
This leads us to the third idea, which is “conscience.” Conscience is made up of two words, “con” meaning “with” and “science” meaning knowledge. If our knowledge base around a certain spiritual practice is highly informed and thought out then we need to consult our conscience when making decisions.
A classic example of this is Paul when addressing eating in the temple. Some immature Christians have a conscience that believes they are defiled when eating food sacrificed to idols. Paul on the other hand doesn’t feel moral distress or a moral dilemma.
If eating it supports fellowship with others, then he does it. If he thinks their conscience is too weak, and if he ate it that would disrupt his relationship with them, then he avoids eating the ritual food even though his conscience is ok with it. (See 1 Cor. 8:1-13).
In verses 9-13 he focuses more on the process or “How you conduct yourself with the exercise of your rights” than theological doctrine. Doctrine takes a supportive role in practical action.
Step #3: If you’ve ruled out the Wrong, look for incongruence
If you have found a grey area in your Christian worldview where there is not a clear moral answer on the topic, then your next step is to avoid incongruence and aim for congruence. Congruence was made popular by Carl Rogers, a seminary-trained pastor turned psychotherapist. You can watch what he says about it here (see around 3 min in).
The basic idea here regarding your spiritual practice is that you want to notice all the inconsistencies between what your head and heart say and what your hands actually do (physical theology).
Don’t rush this. Exegete (or draw out) the meaning of your actions in the real world one by one. To stay on top of it, do this with a partner and talk about your process. Having a “moral community” to support yourself in what Smith calls a “practice Audit” will help you in assessing yourself. A moral community will also help you stick to new practices with the new theology.
Also, be patient with yourself. You likely can’t take on every inconsistency in your life (I still own an iPhone and use Amazon, albeit less frequently…I know I’m working on it!).
If you find a place of incongruence or inconsistency between what your head believes and what you do, and you notice that your conscience isn’t quite formed on the topic, then that’s when you need to research the issue more.
Step #4: Aim for integration, Avoid Confusion
The goal at this stage is to search for “balance.”
After researching the issue of inconsistency, you may find yourself going back and forth on the topic.
This is normal. You are getting real with yourself and getting real with a new spiritual practice. For instance, you may like aspects of mindfulness meditation and use an app. You then discover it originated in Buddhism.
You avoid it but keep researching within your own Christian tradition of other possibilities. You stumble upon Centering Prayer and use a sacred word to redirect your thoughts. This takes you down another path of Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton. You join a Contemplative Society and do retreats, but it feels like something is foreign or missing.
Keep wrestling until a third way appears. It’s through a dialogue of polarized positions that a new path is formed what many in my association of Spirituality and Care call, integration.
Integrating foreign spiritual practices take honesty, trial and error, research, community, and patience. Integration does not mean synchronism. Integration is about keeping the essence of two things the same in terms of their integrity but finding a connection point.
At that connection point, you discover new insight about how they are similar and you feel a sense of peace and your time in practice is more productive.
Well, this was meant as a small primer on the topic of can you practice spirituality as a Christian. I left a few examples here of a step-by-step process for answering the question in a broad sense.
If you’d like me to do one on other practices such as mindfulness, yoga, chanting, or others, let us know in the comments below.
Thank you and as always….see you on the path.
Related Questions:
What is spirituality as a Christian? Across the three major traditions of Christianity (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant), spirituality as a Christian is understood as experiencing the daily communion of the Holy Spirit. This involves being “led” by the Spirit as a divine personality within the Triune God. From this basic orientation, one develops virtues (kindness, patience, gentleness, etc), a sense of purpose, connection with God, that leads to doing good things for people out in the real world.
Are Christianity and spirituality the same thing? Much like the post above, it depends on what you mean by both terms. Generally speaking, the term “spirituality” developed as a discipline within academic settings fully in the 1970s. In the last 30 years, another discipline called, “Spirituality and Health” developed. These are just two examples that spirituality tends to stand on its own and overlaps with Christianity and other contexts. That’s why it’s more helpful to say they are different.
How can I practice spirituality with God? God is a term used throughout many faith traditions and would need some clarification. If we’re speaking about the Christian God, the traditional forms of spiritual practice include fasting and prayer, bible reading and study, sacraments (Baptism, weekly worship, Communion, etc.), using one’s spiritual gifts for the assistance of others (prophecy, marriage, administration, etc.), pilgrimage and others. Click here if you’d like to start learning more about Christianity with tons of resources.
References
- “Can you be Christian and Spiritual? (14 Answers) at https://www.quora.com/Can-you-be-Christian-and-be-spiritual accessed March 17th, 2022.
- “Can a person practice spirituality without religion? (4 Answers) at https://www.quora.com/How-can-a-person-practice-spirituality-without-religion accessed on March 17th, 2022.
- “Can I get into Spirituality and Christianity?” (7 answers) at https://www.quora.com/Can-I-get-into-spirituality-and-Christianity, accessed on March 17th, 2022.
- “How can one practice spirituality in Christianity instead of religion? (5 Answers) at https://www.quora.com/How-can-one-practice-spirituality-in-Christianity-instead-of-religion, accessed on March 17th, 2022.
- “Is there a difference between Christianity and spiritualism?” (14 Answers) at https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-difference-between-Christianity-and-spiritualism, accessed on March 17th, 2022.
- “What is spirituality in the view of Christianity” (13 answers) at https://www.quora.com/What-is-spirituality-in-the-view-of-Christianity, accessed on March 17th, 2022.
- James K. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing, 2009).
